Integrating Research, Policy, and Practice in Juvenile Justice Education
by Thomas G. Blomberg and Gordon P. Waldo
"Integrating Research, Policy, and Practice in Juvenile Justice Education" reviews past evaluation research and the Florida legislation that inspired their evaluation-driven research, accountability measures, and administration of their juvenile justice system. The article also discusses the lack of research consensus on education standards and practices, and outlines the unique ongoing research-driven approach of the Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program created to evaluate and attain "innovative practices."

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Evaluation Research and Quality Assurance
by George Pesta, Trinetia Respress, Aline K. Major, Christine Arazan, and Terry Coxe
"Evaluation Research and Quality Assurance" summarizes promising components for juvenile justice education, as identified by the literature-effective school environment, initial assessments, curriculum, instructional delivery, professional development, transition, and aftercare. The article also reviews Florida’s educational quality assurance process and quality assurance standards (transition, service delivery, administration, and contract management) that guide its accountability process (the quality assurance review). Additionally, the article discusses Florida’s use of technical assistance and its corrective action process.

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Correlates of Quality Educational Programs
by Deborah R. Chester, Jessamyn A. Tracy, Emily Earp, and Reetu Chauhan
"Correlates of Quality Educational Programs" reports the preliminary evaluation findings of the 2000 JJEEP data. The article discusses JJEEP's review procedure and program revisions, general data trends, as well as the specific meaning of the standards/indicators used for the review. The areas of focus are: program type, security level, aftercare, special education needs, teacher certification, gender, facility size, and privatization.

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Pre-, Post-, and Longitudinal Evaluation of Juvenile Justice Education
by Aline K. Major, Deborah R. Chester, Ranee McEntire, Gordon P. Waldo, and Thomas G. Blomberg
"Pre-, Post-, and Longitudinal Evaluation of Juvenile Justice Education" reviews two pilot studies exploring the use of the Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program (JJEEP) database/quality assurance review to evaluate education program quality, academic outcomes, and community reintegration. The article first discusses a pre- and post-academic testing outcome pilot study and looks at the data limitations encountered in terms of access to student information and consistent scoring across facilities. Secondly, the article reviews a longitudinal pilot study designed to look at how quality education programs relate to community reintegration outcomes. Based on the findings of these two studies, improvements were made to the research design to be used for statewide evaluation.

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Data Integration in the Evaluation of Juvenile Justice Education
by Kristin Parsons Winokur, Spencer Li, and Ranee McEntire
"Data Integration in the Evaluation of Juvenile Justice Education" explores the methodology of the data integration and the obstacles encountered in the pilot studies described in the Chester et al. article. This article looks closely at the data integration process, specifically the integration of pre-commitment data, program-specific data, and post-commitment data. In addition, the article discusses the political, bureaucratic, and methodological difficulties encountered in the process of data integration. Following a review of the challenges of data integration, the article then proposes methods that could be used to overcome these obstacles and future analyses that could be used to look at different aspects of the data.

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Evaluation Research, Policy, and Politics
by Thomas G. Blomberg and Gordon P. Waldo
"Evaluation Research, Policy, and Politics" discusses the role of politics in the JJEEP's evaluation efforts to inform Florida's juvenile justice policies. The article examines two politicized issues in Florida (privatization and larger facilities), and proposes that by maintaining a commitment to evaluation research, the JJEEP has both avoided being drawn into political conflicts and achieved some improvement in terms of influencing "innovative practices" at Florida's juvenile justice facilities. The article concludes that in spite of the politicized environment surrounding juvenile justice, JJEEP has the potential to be a powerful evaluation research tool for researchers and policymakers.

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